Artist Statement: A Message in a Bottle 

We had the opportunity to stop climate change if we had listened to climate scientists in the decade of 1979-89 and taken decisive action.  The New York Times had a comprehensive article published August 1, 2018, chronicling the decade and here is the link: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate-change-losing-earth.html 

Now that 40 years has passed, we are at the point where we are going to have to pay trillions of dollars to adapt to the effects of climate change on top of the huge costs of environmental destruction from more intense hurricanes, tornedos, flooding, fires, ocean rise, and crop destruction.  If we do nothing more than deal with the costs of destruction and adaptation, our children will be much worse off than we are now.  Scientists have seen corollaries between increases in CO2 to increases in global average warming and increases in sea level rise, hurricanes, fires, habitat destruction, and species extinction.  We must act now to reduce our carbon footprint and increase funding for research if we want future generations to have an earth to live on.

This globe is fashioned to look like a message in a bottle sent out to sea in 1979 as the ocean was rising.  The weathered note says, “I am on an atoll just east of Bora Bora.  Sea level is rising & my island is going under. Please save me. June 9, 1979”.    It is too late for this person as his atoll is under water now.  However, the message is a call to action for the sake of our children.